Cashing in on Mao-stalgia

There is something creepy about cruising the darkening streets of Beijing sunk in the velvet upholstery of Madame Mao's 1970s Red Flag limousine. My feet propped up on the jump seatjust as Jiang Qing, Mao Zedong's third wife, liked to sit on her own tours of the capitalI sip champagne, nibble caviar and nod as my 20-year-old tour guide, Maggie, recounts tales of China's glorious communist past. As we pass Tiananmen Square and its floodlit portrait of Chairman Mao, I've suddenly had enough. Unable to take more of Maggie's garbled history, I interrupt to ask: "Don't you find it strange to...